Plenty of movies promise to be spine-chilling, but "The Others" offers fear-inducing capabilities that are further enhanced on DVD.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
Picture The dark settings and endless dank mist which pervade the film make for tough subjects to transfer to disc. What's been achieved here is impressive, with a darkness that's made up of textures and shadows, and a deep mist that doesn't distort into a grainy mess.
Sound The curious thing about this collector's edition is why it's a two-disc set, because the features on disc two don't take up much space. It's almost as if a DTS track or commentary track was planned, but then dropped. No matter, for the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is highly effective. There are no major effects or crashing music to deal with, but there are some highly important moments in the film that are beautifully showcased on this DVD. Door slams, running footsteps circling behind you, mysterious bumps, and delicious shocks await you in a sound mix that's so enveloping, you think it's going to tap you on the shoulder.
SPECIAL FEATURES
A Look Inside "The Others" The mood of this 21-minute featurette is promotional, but the comments from the cast and crew are of the intelligent nature that prevent it from turning into a cheese-fest. Nicole Kidman reveals her love of psychologically frightening movies, while Alejandro Amenábar discusses exploring and translating his childhood fears into the film - this perhaps explains why he was able to get such good performances from the two children. He used tricks like humming the music that he was scoring for that particular scene, or by making a loud banging noise to elicit the wonderful looks of genuine shock that they display.
Visual Effects Piece Regular DVD consumers of Hollywood titles will be used to being bored to tears by featurettes that strip away the layers of process shots to reveal how effects were created. What's interesting about this effort is that the presentation doesn't go into achingly dull levels of detail, but rather glides through a series of key scenes. It's interesting to see the bright light conditions that the outside footage was shot in, and then how the darkness and mist were added to create the film's fascinating glow.
Xeroderma Pigmentosum: What is it? This is the name of the affliction that the children in the film suffer from. As it turns out, exposure to bright light - particularly the sun - is a very real condition for some, which results in third-degree burns. This featurette looks at the life of the Mahar family, where young Katie is one of the rare victims of a condition that's nicknamed XP by sufferers. Comments like "My brothers can go out but I can't" will soon have you reaching for the tissues.
Intimate Look at Alejandro Amenábar Whoever decided upon the title for this featurette will never have a great career in tabloid journalism. This is eight minutes of behind-the-scenes footage of Amenábar at work rather than some insight into the man himself. What is perhaps "intimate" is that we get to see him directing the actors and discussing their approaches to a scene - something other directors might not be so keen on.
Additional Extra Features Also on disc two is a trailer, and a stills gallery with behind-the-scenes shots.
Region: 2
Chapters: 19
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Technical Features: Scene selection, animated menus, English subtitles, and English captions for the hearing impaired.
This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-S57 DVD player.
